Sports

Stanford men just miss MPSF water polo upset against UCLA

Freshman Kelsey Bing recorded the win in Stanford's 3-2 victory over Northwestern.

In a tightly contested men's water polo match, No. 6 Stanford and No. 1 UCLA came down to the final minutes, where the host Bruins pulled out a 7-6 victory over the Cardinal at Spieker Aquatics Center.

While the Cardinal never led in the match, the score was tied on four different occasions. A goal by Marco Stanchi tied it at 6 with 3:13 to play. Both teams tried to take advantage of power plays over the next several minutes in search of the game-winner.

Marco Stanchi.

With 1:47 left in the contest, UCLA's Patrick Fellner found the back of the cage for his third goal of the game to put the Bruins back up. Stanford was aggressive in search of the tying score in the final 1:47, but fell just short.

The Cardinal moves to 12-4 on the season and 0-2 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. The Bruins extended their NCAA-record winning streak to 55 matches and improved to 22-0 on the season (2-0 MPSF).

Six different members of the Cardinal scored in the match, including Stanchi, Mitchell Mendoza, Harrison Enright, Sam Pfeil, Cody Smith and Spencer Rogers.

Junior Oliver Lewis played their entire match in the cage for Stanford, posting seven saves. His counterpart, Garrett Danner, registered eight stops for the Bruins.

Stanford returns to action next Saturday as the Cardinal hosts No. 4 Pacific at Avery Aquatic Center at 10 a.m.

Field hockey

No. 17 Stanford knocked off No. 10 Northwestern, 3-2, in a shootout Saturday at Ocker Field on the Michigan campus in a nonconference affair.

The Wildcats (12-7) were up 2-1 late in the second half when Fran Tew converted on a penalty stroke to send the game into overtime.

Cardinal goaltender Kelsey Bing blanked the Wildcats in the shootout while Millie Stefanowicz and Tew converted their penalty strokes for the margin of victory.

Northwestern took the lead in the third minute of play with a goal off a penalty corner, which carried into halftime.

The Cardinal (10-5) offense recorded five shots in the first 11 minutes of the second half before Emma Christus played the equalizer as she punched in a rebound off of a corner to make it 1-1 in the 47th minute. The Wildcats regained the lead in the 54th minute.

Stanford continued the pressure, which paid off when Tew knotted the score to send it into overtime.

"Today was a great come from behind win against a very good Northwestern team," Stanford coach Tara Danielson said. "I am extremely proud of this Stanford team for their commitment to work for each other to get the result."

Overtime was essentially owned by the Cardinal as it put up seven shots to force NU to make two saves while the Stanford defense blanked the Wildcats offense without allowing a shot in both OTs. The Cardinal was unable to score, though, sending it to a penalty stroke-off.